Plan (NO change of meaning, edit sentence structures and grammatical errors)
Setting:
At his grandmother’s home, Harry with his cousins, Bob (6 years, 7 months) and Linda (4 years, 3 months) in pretend play. Bob was the host of a “live” performance, Harry was a dancer and Linda was a ballerina.
Pseudonym of child: Harry; Chronological age: 5 years 7 months; Gender: male
Other important information:
Harry is an only child at home. His parents are working adults and, in their absence, he is under the care of his maternal grandmother. He started going to pre-nursery classes at 2 years 5 months and he is in Kindergarten 2 now. Harry is a violin player who started learning violin at the age of 2 years 11 months. He also engages in dramatic play, likes watching cartoon with his cousins. Being an only child, he is considerably immature compared to his classmates. Due to different level of maturity, he faces some difficulties to get along well with some of children at his age. Harry is a friendly and extremely curious boy who asks many questions daily.
Harry engages in the dancer role in this pretend play (Santrock, 2011).
He used a towel and pretended it was a cape, also used a toy and pretended it was a microphone. He also posed at the end of the performance, said “thank you” and was visibly elated when there was applause.
Harry follows the play rules set by others (Santrock, 2011).
He did not consistently adhere to the rules set by his older cousin, as the host and organizer of the “event”, as he made up his own rules based on his likes.
Harry talks to himself to guide him what to do first and next during pretend play (Santrock, 2011).
He was mumbling about what he was going to do a few times and even whilst he was bouncing around, he repeatedly said he was dancing.
Harry asks many questions during pretend play (Santrock, 2011).
He kept asking his cousins, questions like “how to make costumes”, “what the host should say”, “what happened next” etc.
Harry is able to concentrate on an activity for a longer time (Santrock, 2011).
Harry engaged in this pretend play for more than 30 minutes who did not wander off as much.
Harry is able to take turns in the play without angry.
He displayed a lack of patience and the tendency to want to go first to perform.
Harry demonstrates helpful behavior to his cousins.
He helped his cousins pack toys and clear mess they made after their “performance”.
Harry is willing to share his favorite things with his cousins.
Some snacks were prepared and Harry shared his favorite snacks to his cousins though he showed reluctance when the portions are little.
Harry is able to recognize the basic emotions in his cousins during a conflict, and understands the reason behind this emotion (Berk, 2013).
This indicator was not observed in this pretend play setting. However, in daily life, Harry managed to recognize the basic emotions, like “happy” or “sad”, however, he might not be able to correctly judge the causes of these emotions. Particularly to angry emotion, it took him a while to recognize and react. For example, when his father was angry with him because he did something wrong. Even when his father told him “stop”, he continued doing the same thing until he realized his father was really angry.
Harry shows his concerns when he sees his cousins in distress.
This indicator was not observed in this pretend play setting. However, Harry would comfort his younger cousin when she is sad.
Summary (Facts from the observed data, DON’T copy directly from data) Max.250 words, need to cut 66 words
Based on the observation, Harry engaged in pretend play with his cousins who was able to use one object to represent another object. For example, he used a towel to pretend it was a cape, also used a toy to pretend it was a microphone. Harry was able to use self-talk skills to guide him, and he was relatively concentrated on this play more than 30 minutes. Harry was curious to ask many questions, such as in the situation of pretend play, he wanted to know what kind of costumes he should make, what his elder cousin as host should say. Harry could not follow the rules set by his cousin consistently, because he had his own rules to play with.
Harry practiced on his prosocial skills when he played with his cousins. For example, he could help his cousins to clean the mess they made, and shared his favorite snack. In his daily life, he would comfort his crying cousin by passing tissue paper and giving her snacks. However, he was impatient to take turns during their play. In daily life, Harry managed to recognize other’s basic emotions, for example, he would give his mother a big hug when he recognized his mother’s sad face, but he might not be able to judge the cause of emotion. Moreover, it took him a while to detect that his father was getting angry with him as he did something wrong. Similarly, he needed a bit time to recognize his cousin was angry because he snatched her toy. This may be attributed to the lack of social interaction with other children other than his cousins. As mentioned by his mother, she thinks he is not mature enough compared to his classmates. Sometimes, some other children at his age feel he is childish, so they do not want to play with him due to no common conversational topic.
Analysis (300 words) Cut 136 words
Analyze your summary, state where child is developmentally to facilitate suggestion. MUST use citations to support evidence.
Harry had illustrated symbolic function, intuitive thought, egocentrism expected of his age, according to Piaget’s pre-operational stage (Santrock, 2011). He engaged in pretend play, used a toy to represent a microphone, and even took a bow, seemed like he was a dancer in a real performance. Harry demonstrated his curiosity by asking questions about the “performance” during the play. He also showed typical egocentric behavior when he could not follow his cousin’s rules and played with his own rules. According to Vygotsky’s theory of cognitive development (Santrock, 2011), self-talk is expected to occur between 3 to 7 years old. Harry mumbled to himself about what he was going to dance next in order to guide him. Although Piaget stressed that self-talk is egocentric and reflects immaturity, but many other researchers have found support for Vygotsky’s view that private speech plays a positive role in children’s development (Santrock, 2011). Sustained attention in normal children is well-established from 4 to 6 years old with greatest improvements occurring by 5 years old (Lahey & Kazdin, 2012). At 5 years 7 months, Harry was able to meet the milestone when he involved focused and extended engagement with this pretend play.
During early and middle childhood, metacognition expands greatly as children construct a theory of mind (ToM), that addresses children’s “mind reading”-their ability to detect their own and other people’s perceptions, feelings, desires, and beliefs (Berk, 2013). ToM is significantly correlated with prosocial behaviour in children aged 2 to 12 years (Imuta et al., 2016). However, peer interaction only becomes more prosocial until aged between 7 to 11 years old (Berk, 2013). Harry practiced on his prosocial skills by helping, sharing and comforting, but not be able to take turns yet. The ability to recognize facial expressions of emotion is vital for effective social interaction (Sheaffer, Golden, & Averett, 2009). By age 4 to 5, children are able to correctly judge the causes of many basic emotions (Berk, 2013). Though Harry is over 5 years old, he seems a bit lagging in this development. He could recognize other’s basic emotions, like he would immediately approach to his mother when she showed sad expression, but he might not correctly judge the cause of it. He also reacted slowly to other’s angry emotion.
Nowadays, younger children, even start from infants are increasingly exposed to screen time opportunities. One of the studies in Singapore (Goh et al., 2016) found that majority of children aged 18 to 24 months engaged in daily screen time. Children are extensively exposed to digital media decrease the sensitivity to understand the emotions of other people (Uhls et al., 2014).
Suggested ideas to support the child (300 words)
Based on analysis findings, MUST meet child’s interest and have fun element (NO MORE THAN 2 suggestions)
Based on the analysis findings, Harry has met all the expected cognitive milestones in the various domains of a typical 5 years 7 months child. Meanwhile, he is practicing on his prosocial skills but needs to enhance further. In order to promote his prosocial skills, a cooperative musical play activity can be suggested. For example, Harry and his cousins or friends need to make a piece of music with several glasses filled with different amount of water. Harry has the background of music, so he can share his knowledge with other children. In this activity, they need to discuss cooperatively how much water should fill in each glass to make each note from “Do” to “Do”. They will also learn how to be respectful to others opinions. Once the 8 glasses are prepared, each child will choose 1 to 2 glasses. They can make a familiar piece of music or create their own piece of music with these glasses. It provides them a good opportunity to practice turn-taking skills, as each child needs to wait until their turn to play the note.
Another suggestion is dramatic play which is one of Harry’s favorite activities. Different from the observed setting, each child will be given one prosocial behaviors card, they are encouraged to create own story line and plot, but they need to involve the actions listed on the card. They will take turns to get each different card. By using this idea, it enhances Harry’s cognitive development in creative thinking as well as promotes different prosocial behaviors.
All these ideas are encouraged to play in a mixed-age setting, as younger children acquire new competencies from their older companions. And when more mature youngsters help their less mature counterparts, they practice nurturance, guidance, and other prosocial behaviors (Berk, 2013). It is a good chance for Harry to learn from his friends.
Uhis YT, Michikyan M, et al. Five days at outdoor education camp without screens improves preteen skills with nonverbal emotion cues. Computers in Human Behavior. 2014; 39:387-392. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0747563214003227
Goh SN, The LH, et al. Sociodemographic, home environment and parental influences on total and device-specific screen viewing in children aged 2 years and below: an observational study. BMJ Open. 2016; 6(1): e009113.
Anderson, N. H. (2014). A functional theory of cognition. Psychology Press.
Santrock, J. (2011). Child Development: An Introduction (13th ed.). McGraw Hill Education.
Lahey, B. B. & Kazdin, A. E. (2012). Advanced in clinical child psychology: Volume 4. Plenum Press.
Berk, L. (2013). Child development (13th ed.). Boston: Pearson.
Imuta, K., Henry, J. D., Slaughter, V., Selcuk, B., & Ruffman, T. (2016). Theory of mind and prosocial behavior in childhood: A meta-analytic review. Developmental Psychology, 52(8), 1192–1205.
Sheaffer, B. L., Golden, J. A., & Averett, P. (2009). Facial expression recognition deficits and faulty learning: Implications for theoretical models and clinical applications. International Journal of Behavioral Consultation and Therapy, 5(1), 31-55.